Newspapers, media, bubbles, and the fracturing of democracy

I gave the college kids a mixed bag of goods last week about the nature of newspapers and media in general, and tied it to some worries I have about the health of our democracy.

Asked to be this year’s “publisher in residence” at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communications, I spent a couple days at WSU talking with students about what it’s like to be a small-town newspaper editor and publisher.

I started out by holding one up, so they’d know what I was talking about. That’s because the vast majority come from a city, where the idea of a community paper, one that runs a photo of the cub scouts at their Pinewood Derby, is unknown.

The few in each class who hailed from a small town understood immediately that a community newspaper is what they knew as the common thread that existed through their hometowns, reflecting the struggles, triumphs, losses, battles and peace of the local people.

Community journalism holds up a mirror to the community, so people can decide if they like what they see and make appropriate decisions. Just as keeping a journal is often a part of sorting out personal issues and emotions, “journal”ism should do that for communities, I said.

But for decades, that mission has been endangered, beginning at the national level. It started with the advent of cable television and ever-more efficient (and cheap) technology that resulted in the fracturing of audiences that once had only three choices of network news to watch.

The resulting plethora of choice now allows each of us to decide which news source fits us like an old shoe. That’s comfortable, not having to listen to news and talking heads of people with whom you disagree. Much nicer to stick to watching like-minded geniuses.

That fracturing of national media has contributed to a national polarization in our policies and politics, I told the students, and it can get much worse with the onset of social media.

SM is has great potential as a democratizing power. Everyone’s a publisher, and the truth doesn’t need to wait for news organization to get out. But there’s a darker side, too.

Ever try to argue with somebody on Facebook? That question got knowing smiles from just about everyone. It doesn’t work very well. In fact, there’s a built-in ethic, of sorts, against admitting any kind of friction to your FB presence.

That is leading to the bubble-ization of society. Social media allows us to communicate with our “friends” but tends to discourage further exploration.

It does not feel like that, however; because the feedback we get is that most people think like we do. Pretty soon those bubbles are also echo chambers, and all we can hear are those familiar sounds.

That’s something we need to worry about in a free society that depends on diversity and debate for its health, I told the young adults at WSU.

How should we pierce that bubble? one asked.

By using it.

Social media presents both opportunity and challenge, and we must embrace both. So The Star has a presence on Facebook (at facebook.com/GrandCouleeStar), and on Twitter (@culestar).

Please share this article on your favorite social media site.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher